Whoa! When did your hair get that long?

Daughter Elisabeth and boyfriend George got to the Appleby’s before us for lunch yesterday, seated side-by-side and reading the menus when my dear wife Karen and I spotted them and sat down. Good talk, much smiling, a raised eyebrow or two, more laughs and satisfying catch-up, as usual. Health insurance changes. Physical therapy practices. Family…

Renegade bulbs shoot us some green

My dear wife Karen remembers digging up the tulip bulbs at this particular corner of a front garden last fall. They didn’t get along well with the juniper-come-lately as it grew. And they’d been there coming up on 10 years. Karen says they’ve been looking more and more scraggly each year. A couple little buggers…

My plan to save college sports

The subject of college sports and payment of athletes again rages around America because a labor board ruled in favor of certain players being able to start a union. It’s a heavy topic, with complicated layers and possible ramifications. I come with a simple plan. I think it’s fair to all college athletes. Take the…

I find a pile of old family photos, and here come the memories

I found a bounty of photographs I didn’t even know I had yesterday. I’ve been thinking that my sisters, Fran and Dory, were the keepers of the really good stuff. Apparently there were plenty of Kodak moments to go around. There’s been a volume somebody at sometime put together for me, hiding in a never-used…

This guy Beels has heard lots of nicknames

I called my buddy KP. That’s short for Kingpin, a nickname he was given three decades ago. And as we golfed virtually, ate burgers and drank drafts, KP called me Beels. That’s a nickname that’s stood through decades, too. But it certainly wasn’t my first nickname. When I was of soft-cereal age, there used to…

The 13.1 miles includes .1 past our house

They will come thundering down our city Syracuse neighborhood hill again Sunday. The runners participating in the second edition of the Syracuse Half Marathon are sure to be a colorful bunch. Cold, too. Forecasts right now are for high temperatures in the 20s. About 1,600 runners have signed up to log the 13.1 miles that…